I was one of those kids who would read anything I could get my hands on. To this day, I can be found reading anything and everything except for westerns and hardcore horror. Romances still dominate my reading lists though, and a few depressing endings in a row from other genres always remind me why. I need that happy ending!

I've always been a huge fan of mysteries in any medium, and I eased into reading romance with romantic suspense. It's still my first love in the genre, though I've branched out quite a bit since then. I read any kind of contemporary, series and mainstream, with a slight emphasis toward suspense and romantic comedy. Despite my love of history, I don't read many historicals, mainly because the settings and time periods that dominate the landscape don't hold much appeal for me. The exception is anything involving a touch of the paranormal. I'll grab anything (except most horror) if it involves a bit of magic.

I currently live in California, and in the rare instances when I'm not reading (or at my day job - the less said the better), I can be found seeing a movie or two a week, or at my computer, trying to create a great romance of my own.

What I don't particularly care for in a book: Cowboys, ranch settings, and westerns, will-stipulation plots, amnesia (unless caused by childhood trauma or paranormal phenomena), secret children (unless the child is now grown), pretend, forced, arranged marriages and marriages of convenience, meddling or matchmaking family members, pregnant heroines, babies and children, secretary/boss romances, and time travels where the heroine stays in the pre-1900 past.

What drives me absolutely nuts in a book: Books that promote the "small town - good/big city - bad" cliché, stupid misunderstandings, stupid, whiny, or passive heroes and heroines, characters who wallow in misery, sexist heroes, bitchy heroines, annoying heroines who hurt or humiliate their heroes, weepy heroines, predictable twists and obvious surprise endings, obvious villains, illogical plots, emotionally manipulative writing, athetic/musical/artistic heroes or heroines who give up their art for love, paranormals that solve the impossibility of the characters' love by separating them in the end, characters who judge their potential love interests on their bad experiences with the opposite sex, and stories where the author proves this relationship is "real" love by having the hero or heroine learn their previous love interest wasn't so perfect after all.